


Confessions of the Heart

by Shi_Toyu



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Prompt Fic, Team Dynamics, Team Feels, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 16:11:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12084573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shi_Toyu/pseuds/Shi_Toyu
Summary: Tony Stark is a true genius... but sometimes it takes him a while to realize things. It's not his fault. He's just got a lot going on in that brain of his.





	Confessions of the Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amethystina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethystina/gifts).



> For the beautiful and amazing Amethystina.
> 
> Based on the prompt: "I never thought I'd say this, but I love you."

Tony was a genius. There was no question about that. He had seven doctorates, for crying out loud, the first of which he got when he was barely eighteen, when most people were only just heading _off_ to college. He ran a multi-billion-dollar company, _several_ multi-billion-dollar companies, actually, when you considered all of SI’s subsidiaries. He gave Professor X a headache just by standing in the same room. Hell, he could give Professor X a headache by standing at the school’s _gates_.

His mind was always flying, always tracing seven, eight, nine entirely different thought processes all going on at once. It was why he sometimes appeared to completely change gears in the middle of a conversation. He didn’t even notice, a good portion of the time. He just jumped over to another line and kept right on going.

All that to say, it really wasn’t all that surprising to realize he was in love with Bucky Barnes while talking to a scientist in one of his Japanese facilities about cold fusion.

He turned away from the scientist abruptly, cutting himself off mid-sentence and beelining for the door. He had his phone out and was texting Pepper, letting her know he was cutting his assessment of the facility short and heading back to the US. If he took the suit instead of the private jet he could be back at the Avengers Tower in a matter of hours.

Tony wasn’t the type who liked to leave things unsaid.

Tony and Bucky’d had more than their fair share of problems when he’d come back with Steve and the other Avengers from Wakanda. Tony was still hurting and didn’t trust any of them, even if he had to paste on a smile for the public. They might all save the world together on a regular basis, but they barely spoke outside of missions, and only when it was absolutely necessary. Things probably wouldn’t have ever changed if Bucky hadn’t approached Tony first.

Sam and Clint had already apologized, which Tony had accepted with grace and then ignored. He hadn’t expected Bucky to follow up their acts. Truth be told, none of them were the person Tony’s _wanted_ to come to him with an apology. Still, the fact that Bucky had tracked him down and stood before him with a stiff back and lifted chin, clearly expecting a repulsor to the face but wanting to say his piece anyway, had not gone unappreciated. Tony couldn’t have said which of them was more shocked that it actually led to them _talking._

It was surprisingly easy to talk to Bucky.

With the programming removed from his head, he was slowly but surely regaining his humanity. He would never be the same person Steve remembered from before, but he wasn’t the Winter Soldier, either. He was his own person, risen from the ashes when others had tried to burn him out of existence.

Tony found himself identifying with him more than he would have ever thought possible. How did Disney put it? A tale as old as time, a song as old as rhyme? They were molded from the same clay at the end of the day, whatever stood between them. Those obsticles that had once seemed so insurmountable grew less so over time, until Tony found himself wondering how he hadn’t seen Bucky more clearly from the very start of things.

It was no secret that he blamed Steve for what had happened in Siberia far more than he blamed Bucky. Bucky had been fighting for his life, and had said all the right things before the fight to keep Tony from going completely over the deep end. It’d only when he found out Steve had known the entire time that Tony’d really lost it. (Which wasn’t to say the resulting fight hadn’t left its own lingering scars. Tony still woke up to nightmares of Bucky’s metal fingers curling around the arc reactor and ripping it out, only in his dreams it was still the thing keeping him alive and not just the power source for his suit.)

But that was all in the past, and Tony was very prideful of his status as a futurist. He didn’t _forget_ the past, and he sure as all hell didn’t forgive it without due reason, but he always looked to the future and reveled in the possibilities. He thought a future with Bucky looked pretty bright.

It wasn’t until he was half-way across the Pacific that Tony realized this meant he actually needed to figure out what to say. He and Bucky were… close. Close by Tony’s standards, at least. He’d never kept a very large group of people close to him. He’d always been able to count the people who truly mattered on his fingers. Until the Aveng-And that hadn’t changed now. Bucky was his go-to when he wanted someone to talk to. There was a comfort there he’d only ever been able to find with Rhodey, but there was more than that, too.

Tony had never felt particularly inclined to stare at Rhodey’s ass for hours and the only thing Rhodey looked after an hour or so sweating in the gym was gross. He loved Rhodey. There could never be any doubt about that, but theirs was a platonic love. They were brothers until the end. Nothing was going to change that.

The love Tony felt for Bucky, the love that’d been slowly sneaking up on him over months, was entirely different than his love for Rhodey. It was different than his love for Pepper, too, he realized. He and Pepper had been two pieces of the same puzzle that’d looked like they were meant to go together but just couldn’t quite fit. They’d both tried so hard to make the relationship work, but it wasn’t what they needed. Tony could admit that. There’d always been something not-quite-right about their relationship after they’d gotten together. They’d both thought it was something they could overcome, but some things just weren’t meant to be. She was happier now, anyway, with Happy, and Tony was happy for them. They clicked in a way he and Pepper never had.

The physical aspect, Tony had been aware of for a while. He’d have to be blind not to see how stunningly gorgeous Bucky was. The first time he’d smiled out of nothing but pure joy, Tony could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. It still did, truth be told. Bucky’s body was no less amazing, all sculpted abs and lightly tanned skin. It was paler than Tony’s own, but not by much. If Tony had met Bucky at a party somewhere without knowing him, he’d have had the man in his bed within the _hour_.

Tony just hadn’t quite made the leap from physical attraction and close friendship to _love_. He was certainly no authority on relationships, as anyone he’d ever known would happily attest. He could barely figure out most friendships, never mind anything of the romantic variety. He had even less experience with those. He understood them in the abstract, of course, but that meant next to nothing when you got down to the day-to-day of actually being in one.

That was probably why, when Tony set down on the landing platform of the Avengers facility and the suit began to dismantle around him, he still had no idea what to say. Natasha appeared almost instantly, looking concerned. It was probably understandable, considering they hadn’t been expecting him back for another week, but Tony didn’t pause to give her any mind, just waved off her concern as he brushed past her. There’d been a time where Tony felt like he and Natasha might have shared a confidence, but that was gone now. He felt no desire to let her into the corners of his life. She had lost the right to be there.

“FRIDAY, where’s Buckaroo?”

“Currently in his bedroom, Boss. Want me to give him a heads up that you’re on the way?”

He couldn’t have suppressed his grin if he’d wanted to. He was so proud of his girl. She’d come a long way.

“Make it happen.”

He only encountered a few of the others as he made his way through the facility, but didn’t pause to chat with any of them. It took only a few minutes for him to make it to Bucky’s door, and by then it was already open. Bucky leaned casually against the doorframe, shirtless and hair wrapped up in a towel turban. Either he’d still been in the middle of a shower or he’d just finished when Tony arrived. He gave a valiant effort to not wonder if he might have been able to catch Bucky naked if FRIDAY hadn’t warned him.

“What’s the rush?” Bucky drawled, though he had clearly picked up on the fact that nothing was actually _wrong_. “I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon. Don’t tell me you missed me that much?”

Tony chuckled. If only he knew. Well, he would soon.

“Something like that,” he hedged. Then, because tact was for lesser men, “I never thought I’d say this, but I love you. Just figured it out, but I think I have for a while now.”

Bucky blinked in surprise, straightening. His face lost some of its easy cheer, falling into a far more serious expression. Tony felt his gut churn. Okay. Maybe _some_ tact might have been warranted.

“You love me?”

“Yes?” he asked more than told, suddenly nervous. “I know we didn’t exactly get off to a great start, to put it mildly, but… Bucky, you are one of the most important people in my life. If this isn’t something you want, that’s okay. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I’d rather have our friendship than anything else. And I may not be the best with boundaries, but I can learn them. I don’t even really know where this leaves me, so really it’d be an easy thing. I could just star-“

He kept trying to form words against Bucky’s lips, until his brain caught up to what was happening. By then, Bucky was already pulling away and Tony whined at the loss, moving to try and follow. Bucky, the utter bastard, had the audacity to chuckle.

“You’re fine, doll,” he comforted, sweeping in for another quick kiss. “I was just surprised, is all. You had me half-convinced you’d _never_ figure it out.”

Tony sputtered.

“You _knew?_ ”

Bucky just grinned as he stepped backwards into his suite and pulled the towel off of his head. Tony followed him as if attached by a string.

“You showed it an awful lot for someone who didn’t know they were in love.”

Tony felt like he should have probably been insulted, but couldn’t quite bring himself to be.

“So, then you’re okay with it?” he pursued, because those kisses certainly seemed to indicate Bucky was on board with this but he had to be sure. “With us?”

“More than,” Bucky reassured.

He reached out to pull Tony in close, bringing their chests flush against each other as he kicked the door closed. He leaned in for a searing kiss, far more heated than the previous two had been. Tony reveled in every second of it.

“I love you, too.”


End file.
